Kissimmee Airport Tenant Angry At Lack Of Security

KISSIMMEE — One night last month, the police SWAT team attacked the airport terminal in a practice raid, accidentally knocking out the power. Police posted a guard and the night passed peacefully.

However, less than two weeks later, no police were around when two airplanes parked near the terminal were robbed and radios worth an estimated $18,000 were taken.

It's either too much or too little, but usually too little, when it comes to police protection at the airport, says Bob Pretsch, owner of Marathon Flight School and aircraft service company at the airport.

''Hey, I'm a tenant out here,'' said Pretsch, who pays the city more than $30,000 a year in rent. ''I think I'm entitled to some kind of professional protection.''

Pretsch said that maybe once every two months, robbers break into one of the 100 or so airplanes parked at the airport.

Usually he doesn't say much. However, the radio thefts reported July 26, coming so soon after the SWAT team raid July 14, spurred Pretsch to send a blistering letter to City Manager Mark Durbin and the city commission.

''We feel the city has a responsibility to help protect this property with more than a hit-or-miss attitude,'' Pretsch said in his letter, which was read at Tuesday night's commission meeting. ''When a pilot flies in and cannot have his aircraft protected, he won't be back.''

Pretsch said he'd like to see the city station a security guard at the airport and build a security fence around it.

''Right now, we can't afford it,'' Durbin said Wednesday, adding that the city in a few years may be able to get the Federal Aviation Administration to pay for 90 percent of the cost of the fence.

Durbin said that after the thefts last week, he ordered police to start patrolling the airport several times each night.

Mayor Bruce Van Meter said it's hard to stop thefts at the airport, especially because installing bright lights near the terminal would make it hard for pilots to see runways at night.

A Cessna Cardinal owned by retired Air Force Col. Dan Petersen of Charleston, W.Va., was one of the two planes robbed last week.

Thieves broke the door locks and stole two new navigational radios worth about $3,500 but left two older radios worth just a few hundred dollars apiece, said Petersen. ''They were very selective,'' he said.

Petersen and his son Jon, an Air Force captain, flew to Kissimmee last week to visit Epcot Center at Walt Disney World.

''When we got back, lo and behold, the doors were open,'' said Petersen, adding that he found tire tracks running through the woods to the airplane parking ramp.

Petersen said he didn't blame Kissimmee for the theft. ''A little airport like that, they can't afford someone to be there around the clock,'' he said. ''Any small airport like that is the same way. It's not their fault.''

Petersen said he probably would return to the airport, but he'd rather not park again in the third row of planes closest to the woods. ''If I came back down, I'd call ahead and see if I could get in the front row,'' he said.

Kissimmee's SWAT team also plans to return, to once again practice storming holed-up gunmen at the airport terminal, said team leader Lt. Russell Fender. Fender said the team, which has five regular members and four alternates, practices once a month, attacking targets such as the terminal, houses being built around town and a tower at a firing range in west Kissimmee.

Airport director Chuck Clay said the master power switch at the airport terminal has been covered and locked, so the lights shouldn't go out when the SWAT team returns.